X-Message-Number: 24844 From: "David Pizer" <> Subject: Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2004 10:32:38 -0700 A few comments about what Thomas Donaldson said about Bob Nelson. Thomas said (to Mike Perry): "You have interesting things and in a sense comforting things to say about Bob Nelson, who was once thought of by many as a cryonics ogre." Much of the villification of Nelson came from the Chamberlains who I believe were (Or maybe only Fred was??) named originally in the lawsuit by relatives of the Chattsworth disaster along with Bob. The Chamberlains had a habit of degrading others so that they themselves (in relation) would not look so bad. When Fred Chamberlain & Bob Nelson were named in the original suit, Fred may have bought his way out right from the get to and then villified Bob to take all the blame. I have interviewed Bob serveral times and I have not been able to form a conclusion whether he was completely innocent. Lacking hard evidence to the contrary it seems he was the victim of others who did not continue with their promised payment for the suspensions of their loved ones. Lacking hard evidence to the contrary it seems, as Bob says, that the relatives just quit paying. Without money Bob could not be expected to be able to continue the suspensions of the patients. Thomas also said: "And yes, I hope that Bob Nelson can someday be suspended, too." The first time I talked with Bob he told me that he never had any desire to use cryonics for himself to avoid permanent death. His stated reasons then were that he was interested in space travel and he thought it would be handy for long trips. That's why it got interested in it originally. Then, he said, he just got swept up in a movement that was desperate for someone to be the leader at the time. David Content-Type: text/html; [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=24844